


Adolescence

by preludeoflight



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuuin no Tsurugi | Fire Emblem: Binding Blade, Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu | Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
Genre: AFTER A NIGHTMARE NOT AFTER, Askr, First Kiss, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Sleepy Cuddles, YKNOW THE STUFF, just two prince buds sharin a bed....
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-20
Updated: 2018-11-20
Packaged: 2019-08-26 10:00:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,742
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16679473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/preludeoflight/pseuds/preludeoflight
Summary: After Roy's been plagued by nightmares of Lilina when arriving in Askr, he looks to a newfound friend for some help to avoid more of them. Said help, another prince named Seliph, is more of a blessing than he had first thought.





	Adolescence

**Author's Note:**

> listen i rp roy and seliph and i just really wanted to write an interaction with these two precious boys! i love them, so so so much
> 
> sorry i haven't posted anything in here in like, a literal fuckin year

“Seliph? Can you open up the door?” Roy’s voice calls from the hallway, a blanket thrown over his shoulders. He shivers in his pajamas, a thin layer of cloud pattern cotton, standing under the nearest torchlight for warmth. Even in the thin amber light, he’s absolutely exhausted. Inside the door there’s shuffling and soon enough, it opens a crack to reveal a just as sleepy Seliph.

“Something wrong, Roy?” The prince asks mid yawn, peering through the doorway slice and into the hallway. Roy tilts his head and places a hand on the doorknob to open it wider. Seliph has on some T-shirt and longer pants, but the thing that catches the young prince’s attention is the fact that his hair is down, long dark blue waves fall over his shoulders just like water. Something inside him aches very sharply.

“I… I can’t sleep well,” he sighs, his head bowing in shame. What is a prince to do when he’s been haunted by nightmares? Of course he can’t exactly reveal to Seliph why he’s out of bed and telling him this, he’s barely been here a few weeks. Seliph gives a yawn, covering his mouth with one partially raised hand.

“Aw, that’s too bad,” the other prince murmurs, glancing Roy over for a second as he puts the pieces together. With a small smile he pushes the door open a little wider. “Would you want me to sit with you, so you can fall asleep?” Roy would have blushed wildly out of childish embarrassment, but the exhaustion and desire to simply lay his head down and rest is overpowering any reaction like that. Instead, with a sheepish pout and only a faint hint of color in his cheeks, he nods slowly. Seliph surely wouldn’t tell the others of this, he’s got to have an eye for when things should be kept secret.

Roy shuffles his way inside of Seliph’s chambers, the blanket corner dragging a little on the cobblestone floor and picking up some stray ash underneath the torch. The two princes retire inside the room, it’s similarly furnished as the one Roy is given, he notices the same curtains on the window facing outside and the same general layout: bed in the corner, a nightstand, a table and chair for reading. Did all rooms look the same? Who knows. “Did you have a nightmare?” Seliph asks to break the bit of silence between them, the sleepy smile spreading a little wider. Roy can sense the sympathy there, and he’s thankful for it. With other Heroes, outside of his age range or similar experiences, he wouldn’t dare admit something so embarrassing. But with Seliph, it’s different, the air around him in this room makes all tension drop in his shoulders and gives him space to breathe. The other prince himself has an inherently calming presence, and it’s different than what Roy is used to but he’ll take it.

“... Yeah, I did. That’s why I didn’t want to be… by myself. It had me running from something that I couldn’t understand, but it was so terrifying I couldn’t turn around to face it,” he sighs, the redhead prince taking a seat upon Seliph’s bed and shoving the sheets aside. The blanket is left at the foot, for there is an inherent lingering warmth to the sheets. There’s no doubt Seliph had gotten up from bed to answer his knock, but the warmth hasn’t faded from his time under them. Roy sinks a little deeper, leaving all thoughts of how peculiar this is at the door. The bed is comfy, the sheets are warm, and he’s more relaxed now than with his panicked thoughts back in his own room. Through this haze he thinks he hears a soft giggle from Seliph.

“I’m glad you feel much better now. You don’t need to elaborate any more, if you aren’t comfortable,” he says softly while walking back to the bed. Without thinking Roy shifts over, the sleepiness sinking deep into his skin. Seliph’s voice rises again in confusion.

“Ah- when you said you wanted someone to sit with you, did you mean—“

“Get in if you want,” Roy cuts in before the sentence goes where he doesn’t want to, heat rising to his face. “Or don’t. Whatever you choose is fine.” He wants to roll onto his side, to ignore that it’s _Seliph’s_ bed he’s sleeping in, that Seliph himself has to come in eventually. He stays on his back, the warmth is sapping his energy to move, and one way or another Seliph climbs in right next to him. Two bodies sharing makes the space much more cramped, but the warmth level rises far faster. The torch in the doorway flickers, casting a small stream of light across the room. Roy shuts his eyes, now is the perfect time to go to sleep and not mention a single thing else, until there’s a hand suddenly resting in his hair.

“Things will feel better in the morning.” Seliph’s whisper comes across as nothing but gentle and comforting. “We all get bad dreams, but they fade when we wake up.” Roy turns to one side and finds Seliph facing him, with barely a foot between them. The light behind him, the deep blue hair resting on his shoulders, the soft voice and smile to match, its all somehow hers too. It’s so warm and safe, Roy isn’t sure why he finds himself moving over until the soft cotton of Seliph’s shirt is all he can smell. His eyes close as tears suddenly fill them, and all in a rush he’s back at that hallway, fleeing from the promise he broke and the cherished person he left for dead.

_“I’m sorry…!”_ Roy chokes against Seliph’s chest, the other prince’s arms wrap around Roy to stop him from shaking so terribly. Seliph rests his chin upon the center of that mop of red hair, a hand quickly rubs his back as underneath him, the frightened prince quietly sobs.

“It will be alright,” Seliph soothes in the same comforting tone, hands moving in easy slow circles. The sobs continue for a little longer until he can sense the boy against him slumping as exhaustion sets in. Soon enough, Roy’s sobs shift to slow sleeping breaths. “Come morning, it will be alright.”

\-----------

Things haven’t been quite the same since the two princes have shared sleeping quarters. At least, not for Roy.

For almost a week after, the image of waking up with Seliph so close, petting his hair and murmuring sleepily hasn’t left his mind. He hasn’t exactly avoided Seliph since then, he just ran out of there that morning and has acted as if the entire visit during that night never took place. Thankfully Seliph hasn’t even bothered him about it, all he’s done since then is smile and wave whenever he walks by, their interactions completely unchanged. It hasn’t stopped him from secretly thinking Seliph told people about it, who would do nothing but relentlessly tease him if he did know. So thank the gods it hadn’t come to that yet. He did still have nightmares, yes, but for some reason he can’t seem to go to the other prince to talk about them anymore. It catches him off guard one night when the blue prince is suddenly standing right beside his doorway one evening, soon after he returns from dinner. The torches are lit as the sun sets from the nearby courtyard, painting the hallway with a golden shimmer. Seliph waves politely, smiling as always.

“... What are you doing here?” Roy asks with a smile, seeing his friend is always appreciated but a surprise like this is new. Seliph leans forward from the wall and clasps his hands together, the gesture almost nervous.

“I wanted to make sure you were, ah… resting alright. I noticed that some mornings you are still fairly hard to rouse and to remember to eat breakfast. So I wanted to check up on you, see how you were doing. Have you had many nightmares, lately?” he asks with a small smile. “And of course, if you aren’t quite comfortable, that is fine.” Initially, Roy isn’t sure how to respond to such a question, only that his gut tells him to lie. So he does, and fairly flawlessly.

“I’m sleeping fine, actually. I just like sleeping in late, that’s why I don’t like being woken up early,” he laughs, placing a hand on his doorknob. “But I have been trying to go to bed sooner in order to combat this.” He’s glad with how easily the lie slips out, his smile not breaking. Seliph on the other hand, looks to the side and his fingers interlock with each other. It takes him a second after Roy finishes speaking to look back.

“That’s good to hear! A relief, really,” he sighs quietly. “Then… I hope my request isn’t too off-putting. Haha, you see… now it seems to be I who have trouble sleeping in recent nights…” As Seliph trails off and bows his head in embarrassment, Roy takes his hand off of the doorknob in surprise. Sympathy rises inside him immediately, though a bit of suspicion follows it. Why ask Roy and not someone else? Surely it wasn’t to get more out of him about that certain night, right? Still, Seliph’s stray eyes and shy stance appear completely genuine, so Roy feels there isn’t much of a choice. With a soft sigh, he steps back from his door.

“What can I do to help?” he asks, keeping his smile as the rest of him starts to quietly figure out what Seliph’s plan is. Seliph jumps and looks back to Roy, his hands part and one itches his cheek idly. “Well, I had hoped that… perhaps just a person sitting in the room would help me feel safer? I know Father used to do that when I was much smaller, so… asking for someone to do it when I am already this old is a little, well…” Seliph doesn’t finish the sentence and instead both eyebrows raise knowingly. Roy nods, the suspicion fades away pretty quickly afterwards. If it’s only sitting, then there’s no need to worry about bringing up the topic of sharing a single bed together, something that Roy definitely hasn’t been fretting over. “R-Regardless, if asking your assistance tonight is too much, then I could just--”

“I’ll do it. You deserve better sleep, and I don’t mind helping.”

“Oh! Goodness, I--” Seliph pauses to clap his hands together. “I didn’t think you would agree right away!”

“It’s not a problem for me. Besides,” Roy hopes the color doesn’t rise to his cheeks. “I… should repay you for your help when I had trouble sleeping too.” Seliph’s smile only grows and he giggles, turning on his heel to lead Roy to his quarters in the next wing over. “I will be honest, that’s why I went to you first, knowing there was something you owed me. But really, you don’t need to think of this as a repayment. You are simply assisting me as I have assisted you.” Seliph’s head turns over his shoulder as they walk, the ponytail flipping to rest over the other shoulder and there’s another giggle. Roy isn’t sure if it’s a knowing or teasing kind of giggle but it certainly feels like it.

As they reach Seliph’s door, the taller prince unlocks it and steps inside, Roy is about to follow but a hand pushing against his chest stops him.

“I need to change, you understand. Give me some time.” The door is shut afterwards and Roy waits by the closest torch, now that night falls over the entirety of the castle. When his shadow almost reaches the far wall, the door opens, and Seliph again has his simple white pajamas with a faint flower pattern, his hair down and again laying over his shoulders like a waterfall. Roy feels his heart lurch once more, but he stuffs it down, he’s got to be in control this time. “Thanks for waiting! I put a chair beside the bed for you.”

“No problem, and thanks.” Roy walks right to the chair Seliph speaks of after pushing the door closed behind him, it’s taken from the desk in the corner where a journal and some dry pages of parchment lay. As the redheaded prince sits down, he stares ahead at the wall until there’s the creaking of bedsprings and Seliph slides right under the covers next to him. “Thank you again for doing this. I understand it’s a little strange.”

“It’s really not a problem. Nightmares aren’t things anyone likes to lose their sleep over.”

“I’ll try not to have you waiting too long.” Roy wonders if he should continue the conversation, but that would only keep Seliph awake, so he merely nods. He turns down the oil in the lamp on the bedside table behind him, leaving the room in near darkness.

“Goodnight, Seliph.”

“Goodnight, Roy.” The rustling of sheets and covers gives noise to the otherwise silent room, Roy stretches his legs forward as Seliph gets settled. With the low light in the room and how the shadow of his hair flickers across to the wall and floor, Roy hopes boredom doesn’t come upon him so soon. However, thankfully, there’s soft breathing soon coming from the bed beside him. He looks over and Seliph has drifted off in record time, who would have thought. Does a person beside you truly help that much, in keeping your mind at ease so you can sleep? Roy will have to find a true answer to that later. He decides to sit for a little longer, just to make certain.

While waiting, he finds himself studying the other prince in the small lamp flame. It gives his already round and soft face a different glow, almost cherub-like, completely innocent and sweet. His bangs, usually held up by the white headband he wears so often, flop over his eyebrows and nearly reach his eyes. His hair looks so silken and sleek, perhaps more like long strips of blue ribbon than waterfalls. _Wait, what am I thinking?!_ Roy’s face heats quickly, even with the flame behind him sweat runs down the back of his neck. What would Seliph think, being stared at while sleeping? That’s completely creepy, Roy shakes his head to throw off the thoughts, standing up from the chair.

He’s waited enough, Seliph’s certainly asleep, he should go back to his room and get to bed himself. Yet, as he turns, the other boy murmurs something. Then, as he rolls onto his side facing the candle and Roy, more mumbles of words to form a phrase. Roy stops and turns back, surprised that Seliph talks in his sleep, and decides to listen to figure out what it could be. He gets down on one knee and tilts his head toward Seliph, through the nonsensical sounds he can piece together a name; his.

_“Roy…”,_ so sleepily through half part lips, has his heart suddenly thudding in seconds. The pounding echoes in his ears, the silence of the room overtaken by how fast he can tell his pulse racing. Something inside him draws Roy closer to Seliph, who breathes lightly and whispers another _“Roy.”_ As hundreds of thoughts swirl around the prince’s head, they suddenly go blank, the hot rush of desire overtaking them all. Roy’s lips tenderly, softly, oh so delicately move over Seliph’s own.

At first the kiss is barely a graze, Roy far too anxious that it will wake up the sleeping prince, but when this little contact doesn’t come with a twitch he presses further. Seliph’s lips are wonderfully smooth and taste a little like the ice cream they had at dessert when dinner finishes; a creamy vanilla. Roy finds the rush fills him, pushes him to go for more, but anxiety and alarm bells finally break through the desire and pull him back. With fingers over his lips the prince slips out of the room in a flash and runs down the hall, not caring if his footsteps are loud on the stone floor.

Back in Seliph’s room, with the door slowly swinging closed, the back of his hand rests against his mouth as he curls into a ball. Both princes are shaken from a single stolen kiss, while the night continues on to leave them alone with their thoughts.


End file.
